Can wider sustainability issues be incorporated into the Management System?
1.10 EMAS was designed to control significant environmental effects. It is perfectly possible to use the EMAS process to address wider sustainability objectives, such as impact on equity or quality of life, by broadening the definition of significance at the Review stage to include additional issues. For example, if, as part of the Local Agenda 21 process you have consulted local communities on which issues are most important to their quality of life, (perhaps encapsulated in a set of local sustainability indicators), then these will provide a natural addition to those issues which must be covered by EMAS. However, these aspects of the system may not considered by the Verifier when assessing you for EMAS registration, and may need to be treated as part of a separate but integrated management system, just like financial, or quality management. 1.11 But the expansion of EMAS should be treated with caution. Remember, once an activity is determined as significant, then the same standards o
